I'm the CEO of TiqIQ.com, which is the leading ticket search engine online. I started my professional career as a writer covering New York technology in 1996. I've been fascinated by the ticket market from a young age and remember trying to understand what drove the market in front of Yankee Stadium and Madison Square Garden. After working in eCommerce for much of my career, I decided to start a company dedicated to tracking those prices with the benefit of technology and helping consumers get the best possible deals.

In the nine-year history of the Beltway series–played between the Washington Nationals and Baltimore Orioles–the Nationals have only won once. That series win came one year before their move to Nationals Park from RFK stadium. That win came in 2007, the same year the Nationals finished 73-89 and 16 games out of first place in the National League East. In the last two years, the Nationals had their first two winning seasons as an organization since moving to Washington. Unfortunately for their success in the Beltway series, those were also the first two years since 1997 that the Orioles had winning seasons. Halfway through the Orioles schedule this season, they are once again on pace for a winning record, at 48-40. At 48-39, that Nationals are barely behind them. Despite the fact that both teams are either in first place in their respective division or within a half-game of first place, 2014 marks the least expensive beltway series over the last three years.

At an average price of $46 on the secondary ticket market, Nationals tickets are 13% lower than tickets at Camden Yards for the 2014 series. 2014 is in fact the lowest price for tickets at Nationals Park over the last three years, and down from a high of $60 last season. The $46-average is also $3 less expensive than Nationals average price at home this season. The $53 average price in Baltimore for the Beltway rivalry is also considerably less expensive than the Orioles home average price of $67. In a season when both teams are competing for their respective divisions, the lack of enthusiasm for the beltway series comes as a bit of a surprise. As a point of comparison, the Battle of the Bay has premium in both AT&T Park as well as O.co Coliseum. Because tickets on the SF Giants schedule are already one of the most expensive in baseball, their premium for the Bay Bridge rivalry is small, at just over 3%. Oakland Athletics tickets, however, are one of the cheaper tickets in baseball. As a result, the Battle of the Bay has a premium of 78% for the Oakland portion of the interleague series that kicked off tonight.

Like the Beltway series, the Bay Bridge series is between two teams at the top of their division. It’s also between two teams that have a much richer history and rivalry than the Orioles and Nationals. Over the course of their histories, the Athletics and the Giants have played each other 96 times in interleague play, dating from 1997. They’ve also played each other in four World Series, three of which happened when the A’s were located in Philadelphia and the Giants in New York. The last one was the infamous 1989 Earthquake series which the A’s won by a count of 4-0. 2014 could very well be the first time the two teams meet again the fall classic since 1989, the year of Eckersley, and the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco. An Orioles versus Nationals World Series is also not out of the question, and if it were to happen, 2015 Beltway series prices would be considerably higher than this year’s edition.

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